Yearly Archives: 2017

Mourning Dove

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This graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove is common across the continent. The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. They like to hang out on the deck rail, ground and backyard maple tree at my house.

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Part of the reason for its significant increase in population is that many forests have been converted to farmlands, pastures and towns – which provide ideal habitat, as this is an open-country bird.

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Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments (mourning). When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying sound. Mourning Doves have coloration that matches their surroundings. They are brown to tan overall, with black spots on the wings and black-bordered white tips.

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Seeds make up 99 percent of a Mourning Dove’s diet. It tends to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they’ve filled their crop, they fly to a safe perch to digest their meal.

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Although this is primarily a bird of open areas with scattered trees, and woodland edges, large numbers roost in woodlots during Winter.

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False Turkey Tail Mushroom

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Like the “true” Turkey Tail, this has a colorful, somewhat fuzzy cap which displays patterns of brown, red, orange, buff and green.

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The stemless fruiting body is shell-like, tough and inedible. It grows on tree bark. This fungus is native to North America, where it is widespread and grows all year round.

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Both Turkey Tail and False Turkey Tail are highly variable in appearance and look strikingly similar. So how do you tell them apart? The answer can be found by looking at the underside of the cap. Turkey’s Tail has tiny holes for its spore tubes, while False Turkey Tail has a smooth to slightly wrinkly underside with no visible holes.

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While an imposter, False Turkey Tail Mushroom plays a crucial role in woodlands by breaking down dead wood, recycling nutrients back into the soil and creating space for new growth.

It also provides color to woodlands on Winter days.

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Yellow-soled Slug

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Also known by its common name the “Garden Slug,” “Small Striped Slug” or “Black Field Slug,” this species is small (about 1 inch). The “Yellow-soled” part of its name comes from its colorful foot.

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This creature lives in gardens, fields, pastures and similar habitat and consumes agriculturally important crops; it often inhabits disturbed sites like roadsides.

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Their food is eaten by means of a rasping tongue known as a radula. Slugs are related to snails; in this species the shell is reduced to a group of calcareous granules below the mantle, which appears as a bulge on front part of the animal.

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Yellow-soled Slugs emerge at night and spend the day in moist places beneath stones, logs and other objects. Although not a favorite of many people, I didn’t mind coming across this little creature on a warm Winter’s day.

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Melanistic Eastern Gray Squirrel

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The black form of Eastern Gray Squirrel occurs as a “melanistic” subgroup. It is particularly abundant in the northern part of the mammal’s range.

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This is due to black squirrels having a considerably higher cold tolerance than that of gray colored squirrels.

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In addition, because the northern forests are more dense and therefore darker, dark colored squirrels have the benefit of better concealment in their dimly lit habitat.

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The black color is most likely the result of a mutation, which probably occurred by chance. As it turns out, the color mutation was favorable to the survival of the squirrels, became passed down through generations and spread.

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Although somewhat common in northeast Ohio, the rarity of the black squirrel has caused many people to admire them, and they enjoy great affection in some places as mascots.

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Smallmouth Salamander

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As Spring approaches here in northeast Ohio, I await the annual migration of mole salamanders and frogs as they leave their underground hibernation hideouts and head to vernal pools to lay their eggs. This week it happened.

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One of the less common of these creatures around here is the Smallmouth Salamander. It is best identified by its short snout and small head. It usually grows to about five inches in total length.

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The Smallmouth Salamander’s dark, earthtone ground color is occasionally accented with light flecks of blue pigment, especially along its sides and belly.

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This amphibian’s habitat is forested floodplains, swampy areas and deciduous forests. It spends most of the year hidden in underground burrows or under logs, leaf litter and other debris.

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Like the other mole salamanders in northeast Ohio, the Spotted Salamander and the Jefferson Salamander, the Smallmouth Salamander typically eats insects, slugs and worms.

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I look forward to searching for and coming across this oddly proportioned amphibian each Spring and it was exciting to see one this week.

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False Black Widow

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Stepping out my front door on a warm Winter day, I saw this creature. This species is in the genus Steatoda, which are commonly referred to as False Black Widow Spiders. They are closely related to the true Black Widow Spiders, but are not nearly as venomous.

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Another common name for this arachnid is “Cupboard Spider,” because many species building their webs in dark, sheltered, undisturbed places around the house or garden, in sheds and garages, under garden furniture, bridges, wood piles compost bins and similar structures.

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For a web, the False Black Widow builds a tangled, three-dimensional “cobweb” snare. The silk is not sticky, but prey easily gets tangled and begins to struggle, which sends vibrations to the spider. Using its two back legs, the spider then “throws” silk around the prey until it can no longer escape or harm its captor, at which point it delivers a venom-injecting bite and then begins to feed.

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Female False Black Widows have been reported to live for up to six years (males live for a year to a year and a half), producing numerous offspring. These spiders have a total of eight eyes, arranged in two horizontal rows of four (a pattern typical of cobweb spiders in this family).

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It was neat to come across this creature, a spider which I’ve never seen before, and all I had to do was take a couple of steps out my front door!

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Mallard

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If someone is at a park is feeding bread to ducks, there’s a good chance there are Mallards in the fray. Perhaps the most familiar of all ducks, Mallards occur throughout North America and Eurasia in ponds and parks as well as “wilder” rivers, lakes and estuaries. This bird is found in both freshwater and salt water wetlands.

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The males (drakes) have a glossy green head and are grey on their wings and belly, while the females (hens) have mostly brown-speckled plumage.

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Mallards eat water plants and small animals and are social animals, tending to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. Mallards are “dabbling ducks” – they feed in the water by tipping forward and grazing on underwater and above-water plants. They almost never dive.

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These ducks can be very tame, especially those residing in city ponds. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks.

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Scientifically known as Anas platyrhynchos, the Mallard was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae, and still bears its original binomial name. The scientific name is from Latin Anas, “duck” and Ancient Greek platyrhynchus , “broad-billed” ( from platus, “broad” and rhunkhos, “bill”).

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Common over most of the northern hemisphere, the Mallard is a well-known wild duck to many people; it is thought to be the most abundant and wide-ranging duck on Earth.

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Bitter Oyster

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Bitter Oyster is a widely distributed fungus that is also known as Luminescent Panellus, Stiptic Fungus, or Astringent Panus. It is more common in eastern North America than in the west. It frequently grows in groups, residing in dense forests. It is often found on logs, stumps and trunks of deciduous trees such as Birch, Oak and Beech.

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This little mushroom has reportedly been used as a styptic (blood thickening) agent. It is a relatively common species that is prevalent Spring through Fall (it can also be found in Winter in warm climates, or during Winter warm spells in temperate areas).

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Bitter Oyster is an unassuming fungus by day. It forms waves of soft beige shelves and blends in with its surroundings. The edges of the mushroom cap have small rounded teeth that are curved inward. But at night things change; its gills, under their own power, glow – a characteristic known as bioluminescence.

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The luminescent glow of this and other fungi inspired the term “foxfire,” coined by early settlers in eastern and southern North America. Although generally very dim, in some cases foxfire is bright enough to read by. Bitter Oyster is a pretty cool organism that often goes unnoticed in today’s world.

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Western Mosquitofish

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This small fish is dull grey or brown in color with no bars of bands on the sides, it has a rounded tail and an upturned mouth. This species is not native to Ohio, but was stocked in western Lucas County in 1947 and now lives in scattered locations throughout the state. Females (2 to 3 inches long) are two or three times larger than males and more stocky.

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The Western Mosquitofish feeds primarily on zooplankton and invertebrate prey at the top of the water column. As its name implies, one of its main food items is mosquito larvae. It is well known for its high feeding capacity. Consumption rates of 42–167% of their body weight per day have been documented.

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Because of their reputation as mosquito control agents, they have been stocked routinely and indiscriminately in temperate and tropical areas around the world. In the United States the first known introductions of mosquitofish took place in the early 1900s. It is commonly found in Lake Erie and even sold as a bait fish.

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They prefer ponds or very slow flowing streams with clear water and abundant aquatic vegetation. This species is one of the few freshwater fish species that bears live young. The Western Mosquitofish can spawn from May through September with females carrying an average of 40 young.

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Vians Flea Beetle

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On a warm Winter day I saw this cool creature (with a drop of water on its back) hanging out in my rock garden. ”Flea Beetle” is a general name applied to the small, jumping beetles of the leaf beetle family. They are similar to other leaf beetles, but characteristically have hindlegs that are greatly enlarged. These oversized femora allow for the springing action of these insects when disturbed.

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While they can jump, they also walk normally and fly. Many are attractively colored; dark, shiny and often metallic colors prevail. They tend to be small, and at one quarter of an inch, this is one of the larger species.

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The Vians Flea Beetle is found in the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast. In Canada the species ranges from the Northwest Territories to Nova Scotia and areas southward.

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During adverse weather conditions (like rain) they seek shelter in the soil. Flea beetles overwinter as adults in leaf litter, hedgerows, windbreaks and wooded areas. In early spring, the adults become active again.

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Pink Smartweed is their most common food plant, but Vians Flea Beetles have also been collected on members of other plant families too. It was a nice Winter surprise to encounter this tiny, but cool creature.

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